Modernist Versions of the Same Classic

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Compare and contrast two modernist interpretations of the Orpheus myth (Cocteau and Williams). In doing so, you may find it helpful to refer to earlier interpretations, or to artistic norms from earlier eras. Your goal is to demonstrate that you comprehend not merely isolated concepts, but also the connections and relations among them, across multiple eras and multiple media.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWqXjlr0uHk (link for Jean Cocteau’s film “Orpheus” (1960). If you cannot access it through here simply type Orphee in the youtube search box and it shall appear.)
The script for Williams’ play “Orpheus Descending” will be sent separately upon you confirmation.

Modernist Versions of the Same Classic

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solution

Williams and Cocteau adapted the story of Orpheus and Eurydice numerous times throughout their respective careers, utilizing a variety of artistic mediums in the process. There are various explanations for why both writers used the tale differently. Both authors

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would have had a deep connection to the Orpheus myth since they viewed Orpheus as an unfortunate artist, unlucky in love and even unluckier in his quest for artistic quality.

The difficulties Cocteau and Williams experienced throughout their careers as artists and as individuals may have been exacerbated by his passing.

Because “adapters are generally drawn to a challenge they believe can be best described through their native medium,” both playwrights used various new artistic forms in addition to their usual style when writing their versions of Orpheus (Barnette 47).

Williams 38 attempted to construct his version of the Orphic mythology by using theatrical performance, a poem with the same name, and a film titled The Fugitive Kind. Cocteau would use poetry, dramatic performance, and film in his numerous adaptations of the Orphic myth.

It is intriguing to notice that both authors encountered a barrage of criticism and bad karma surrounding the manufacturing of their Orphic works, especially in light of the several altered versions of the Orphic narratives that Williams and Cocteau produced.

A mirror broke during the final rehearsal in Cocteau’s apartment, where Orpheé was originally staged in France. Soon after, Orpheé was performed in Mexico, where an earthquake destroyed the theater and the actor who played Orpheus unexpectedly passed away (Oxenhandler 88-9).

The tale utterly enthralled Cocteau despite the awful catastrophe that seemed to surround this drama. It continues to be a central motif in many of his films, including Orpheus, The Youth and Death, and The Testament of Orpheus.

For his initial Battle of Angels production, however, Williams received a lot of negative feedback.

After audience and reviewer evaluations considered the production aggressive and immoral, the show was “faced with closure by the police” and was shut down by the Theatre Guild (Hale 25).

Even in the preface to Orpheus Descending, William describes the morning following the start of the first Battle of Angels as having “an air of gentle gravity… so much like the atmosphere that hangs over a home from which the Reaper has snatched a living soul –” a connection to both sudden death and the gravity of it that manifests itself in many iterations of the Orphic myths in 20th-century writers’ versions of the story (v).

Battle of Angels “suffers much more than its amended version from excessive symbolism, unnecessary anecdotes, and theatrical pyrotechnics, which culminate to a frantic climax” that audiences were left both perplexed and disturbed about as they left the theater (Thompson 95).

It took Williams seventeen years to present a new version of the 39 Orphic tales finally. To keep the play from being canceled, Orpheus Descending “maintained the Greek legend but emphasized the religious elements” (Hale 25).

Before the play Orpheus Descending was released, Williams wrote a poem with the same name. Williams also produced a 1960 film adaptation of the play, The Fugitive Kind (King 133).

The play wasn’t established as one of Williams’ major critical hits until much later, in 1989, when a revival production with Vanesa Redgrave was produced and recast the piece as a tragedy (Hale 25).